Carved by Ōtepoti Dunedin-based stonemason artist and sculptor Marcus Wainwright, it was inspired by Botticelli’s artwork, Judith with the head of Holofernes.
The circa 1470 work features Judith and her maid servant Abra carrying the head of her foe, the enemy Holofernes based on the biblical narrative.
The carving was gifted by the artist after his exhibition 8 Years, 8 Works, Judith (2007) was unwrapped from storage to be permanently installed in the new atrium at the gallery.
Wainwright said he felt ‘‘very fortunate’’ it had pride of place in the new gallery space.
‘‘I feel very fortunate that she now has a space like that, because I didn’t want to sell her.
‘‘I knew once it was sold it would be put in someone else’s space only and it is hard to put artworks into places where you have natural light, which can bleach them, but that’s the nice thing about stone.’’
He said he was happy the traditional and ‘‘emotional and figurative work’’ of Judith was housed in Oamaru.
‘‘I like going to Oamaru, I like the people there, they’ve got that sort of romantic vision of the olden days, which you still feel there, and I sort of live in the olden days,’’ he said.
‘‘When I learnt from the gallery’s former director, Warwick Smith, that Marcus had donated this work with the intention that it would one day be incorporated into the redeveloped building, I knew we had to find a place for it as part of this project.
‘‘It’s great to be able to honour this vision,’’ she said.
The sculpture took three months in total to carve, Wainwright said he wanted to do something larger and figurative along the lines of traditional carving.
‘‘The traditional trade revolves around church work, cathedrals and classic stonemasonry work, so from my skill level I went through monumental to decorative carving, then grotesques, and of course human figures are the last challenge.’’
Wainwright originally carved the piece in the Vogel St artists’ basement in Dunedin and said it was ‘‘strange unpacking her’’.
‘‘I have virtually moved on from all that type of work of traditional carving to a different sort of career choice, but it’s nice that she was there.
‘‘I still loved exploring it and carving it, and it’s very technical work, while it looks creative,’’ he said.
He said he was originally inspired by paintings of the biblical heroine Judith by the Italian Renaissance artist, Sandro Botticelli, and what it stood for.
‘‘It’s a story of female sacrifice ... but the back story is so chilling now, that they’ve always been fighting for peace and there’s a delicate balance between the sword and the olive leaf.’’
‘‘Through my apprenticeship, everyone looked up to the great works from Michelangelo and the very commonly known popular artists, and I’ve done my trips to Italy and Paris to the grand cemeteries and looked at all the beautiful spaces.’’
Wainwright said while you can see the ‘‘tail-end’’ of some of that more traditional carving in New Zealand in cemeteries, churches and historic buildings he was motivated to move on to building work.
He is now a director at Wainwright & Hickey, specialists in heritage stone masonry and structural strengthening.
Wainwright & Hickey recently worked on strengthening the Hall of Memories building at Waitaki Boys’ High School in Oamaru.
